Harvey Weinstein accusations prove one thing can trump money and power — but it's nearly impossible to get

Harvey Weinstein's success and wealth gave him power
over the careers and livelihood of his alleged
victims.Women who speak up about sexual assault and sexual
harassment face many risks and challenges, including financial
ones.It's a pattern that replays itself in cases such as
those of Bill Cosby and Roger Ailes.

Power over the careers of young actresses and models trying to
make a living in Hollywood. Power over their money and their
opportunities. Power over their
silence.

Weinstein's alleged
victims were early in their careers - no match for an
established Hollywood heavyweight. Many of his accusers have
become household names today - Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow,
and Cara Delevingne to name a few - but everyone starts
somewhere.

And when you're just starting out, going head to head with a man
worth millions is a financial fight you can't expect to win.

"I am a 28 year old woman trying to make a living and a career.
Harvey Weinstein is a 64 year old, world famous man and this is
his company. The balance of power is me: 0, Harvey Weinstein:
10," wrote former employee Lauren O'Connor in a 2015 memo
addressed to executives of The Weinstein Company and obtained by
the New York Times'
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

Weinstein's nine-figure net worth still eclipses that of most of
his accusers, even those who have gone on to achieve success of
their own. It's an imbalance of power - and account balances -
reminiscent of other media moguls accused of similar behavior,
such as Bill Cosby and Roger Ailes.

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Angelina Jolie told The New York Times she had a "bad experience" with Harvey Weinstein in 1998.

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Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

Wealth can be used in positive ways. It often is. But
Weinstein's immense wealth, and his alleged victims' financial
dependence on his favor, created a power dynamic that made it
nearly impossible for anyone to speak up against him.

For many of Weinstein's alleged victims, keeping silent was their
only financial choice.

"I really felt scared, like he was in this all-powerful position,
and I was clearly never going to work again if I said anything,"
Katherine Kendall told Michael Barbaro on Wednesday's episode of
The Daily podcast from the New York Times.

"Once you've got some of these people with a ton of power, like a
Harvey Weinstein or someone like that, they have so much power,
and so many cronies that are going to support them, that it's so
hard to go against them because you're almost always going to get
retaliated against," Stephanie
Gironda, senior associate in employment law at Wilentz,
Goldman & Spitzer, told Business Insider. "It puts people in
a really tough situation."

Money is power - until the numbers are no longer in your favor

It would seem, as recent examples have shown, that the only thing
more powerful than money is numbers. Support for the accusers -
and condemnation of the accused, whether Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes,
or Harvey Weinstein - grew as the number of women coming forward
with allegations mounted.

Weinstein has denied many of the allegations, and in a statement provided
to the New Yorker said he "believes that all of these
relationships were consensual."

He's not the first person to believe that unwanted advances were
consensual, when women have said otherwise.

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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, with Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman in 2009.

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Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for The Weinstein Company

Donald Trump, who owned the Miss Universe pageant franchise
before selling it after becoming president, admitted to walking
into the dressing rooms when contestants were changing. Some were
as young as 15 at the time, Buzzfeed News reported last year.

"I'm allowed to go in, because I'm the owner of the pageant and
therefore I'm inspecting it," Trump boasted to Howard Stern in
recordings released by CNN. "And you see these incredible
looking women, and so I sort of get away with things like that."

Exactly.

Women who speak up put their career and livelihood at risk

Many of the women who have come forward to accuse Weinstein
publicly are now financially independent. For victims of sexual
assault or harassment who are not, speaking up means putting
a lot on the line.

"I thought it would be a 'He said, she said,' and I thought about
how impressive his legal team is, and I thought about how much I
would lose, and I decided to just move forward," a woman who
alleges Weinstein forced himself on her "sexually" told Ronan Farrow for the
New Yorker.

Cara Delevingne shared her experience with Harvey Weinstein in an Instagram post.

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Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty

Cara Delevingne,
who has also accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, wrote in a
statement, "The more we talk about it, the less power we give
them." It's a hopeful message.

But to truly shift the balance of power, we also need a system
that protects the vulnerable before their numbers grow so large
that we have no choice but to believe them. The high school
student who accuses the National Honor Society president of rape,
or the 20-something intern who claims her boss groped her at the
holiday party, deserve the same level of support we reserve for
the victims of Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby.

Until that support becomes the norm, speaking up will continue to
be a risk for victims who do not have the power of money or
numbers on their side.